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At the dawn of the 2000s, there was no status symbol glitzier than a rhinestone-encrusted Sidekick. It-girls were papped pulling the cell phone out of their hot pink handbags, and brands from Juicy Couture to Diane Von Furstenberg released collaborative handsets that sold out within weeks of release. But by 2010, the Sidekick — like much of the era’s tech — had become a relic, usurped by the sleek and understated iPhone.
Two decades on, the gadgets that Apple made obsolete are having an unexpected renaissance. Devices popular at the turn of the millennium are in extremely high demand, according to Retrospekt, which refurbishes and restores outdated tech. The American company’s sales of digital video cameras have surged by 700 per cent in 2024 over last year, with iPods jumping 637 per cent and portable CD players 130 per cent. Sales of 2000s-era digital cameras increased 150 per cent year-on-year.
Wired headphones have also gained a reputation as being objectively cooler than AirPods, with @WiredItGirls on Instagram chronicling the many celebrities and influencers — from Ice Spice to Lily-Rose Depp — who choose a cord over Bluetooth.
Much of this demand comes from Gen Z and millennials, says Retrospekt co-founder Adam Fuerst, and is down to nostalgia, novelty or the desire to own something tangible. As the 2000s party bus keeps on rolling, these devices are being used as an extension of consumers’ outfits and aesthetics, just as they were 20 years ago, and the visual language of Y2K tech is reappearing all over contemporary design.
Several fashion brands have forayed into lo-fi tech in recent years. Supreme released analogue cameras with Fujifilm and Yashica; Lacoste, Miu Miu and Fendi have collaborated with Polaroid on a camera and, in Lacoste’s case, a related capsule collection; and Urban Outfitters stocks its own line of disposable cameras and a range of point-and-shoot digicams. In the most irreverent example yet, the fashion meme account @PatheticFashion just started selling fully functional, hand-bejewelled vintage Motorola Razr flip phones.
“It makes sense,” says Elad Yam, co-founder and creative director of phone case and apparel brand Urban Sophistication. “For so many designers working today, that period is their nostalgia — it’s where they’re pulling references from.” That nostalgia crosses over to their consumers, who are either reminiscing on a period they lived through or pining for one they missed.
From homage to accessories
References abound. Last year, Coperni previewed a bag that doubled as a portable CD player, much to the delight of the internet. While the clutch never made it to market, the brand’s Swipe bag — inspired by the iPhone’s ‘swipe to unlock’ icon — comes in a range of metallic finishes that hark back to early-2000s tech. At first glance, Marni’s PVC tote bags could be one of Apple’s colourful early iMacs, Meta’s see-through Ray-Ban frames are a direct callback to the era’s transparent tech trend, and Nike’s iridescent Air Max 97s bring to mind the holographic shimmer of a CD-Rom.
In the most literal expression of fashion’s love for outdated tech, certain items have been worn as straight-up accessories, devoid of their original use.
Vick Cammie, a digital creator from Brazil, and Kira Lyn Vaden, a florist from the US, both went viral after posting photos of themselves using iPod Shuffles as hair clips. Various websites labelled the look a “trend”, but as Lyn Vaden says, “it definitely wasn’t anything I ever saw anyone wearing on the street”. Cammie agrees, saying she only ever saw photos online.
This demand for MP3 players chimes with a growing interest in so-called “dumb phones”. Searches for handsets not connected to the internet have increased by 270 per cent since December 2021, according to Google Trends data.
There is also pushback against a years-long hype cycle, in which bleeding-edge tech such as NFTs, mixed reality and the metaverse saturated and subsequently disappointed consumers and brands alike. This shift is a relevant factor in LVMH’s strategy to invest in “invisible tech” that’s less in your face, according to LVMH VP of digital innovation Nelly Mensah, who spoke at Vogue Business’s Fashion Futures event in New York last month.
“We’re talking about this trend of people actually getting a little bit overexposed online, starting to understand that their attention is frazzled. These consumers are becoming so aware, they’re actually moving towards, ‘I want a dumb phone’, or, ‘I actually don’t want a big screen. I want something that’s really light.’” The recent popularity of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, whose success is credited in part to their specific ability to blend in, ties in to this, she added.
Smartphones are distracting, but iPods offer a way to “relive the old days, when they were just for music”, says Ana Correa, footwear and accessories strategist at trend forecasting agency WGSN. Meanwhile, the aesthetic of digital and film cameras is inherently romantic; it “looks like how we remember things”, Gen Z creator Katie Glasgow told the BBC.
A related sector is “accessories for your accessories” — reminiscent of the beads people hung off their Motorola Razrs in the early 2000s. Phone charms are again on the up, with Prada, Miu Miu and Brunello Cucinelli all offering a luxury take at a luxury price point.
Rachel Steed-Middleton founded String Ting in 2020, and her charms and chains now decorate the phones of fashion figures such as Gigi Hadid, Jennie Kim and Charli XCX. She puts their popularity down to the opportunity they provide for self-expression. Correa agrees, saying WGSN expects this “chaotic customisation” to continue to grow into next year and beyond, as younger consumers use “personalised charms, keychains and removable stickers” to make mass-produced products feel more distinctive.
All signs point to retro tech maintaining a grip on the younger generations.
“Fashion has always taken from the past, and the definition of ‘retro’ is always changing,” says Fuerst. “And I think now, there’s a desire to not only push technology towards the future, but to explore technology from the past.”
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